Kurt Schumacher

Kurt Schumacher (13 October 1895-20 August 1952) was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 10 May 1946 to 20 August 1952, succeeding Hans Vogel and preceding Erich Ollenhauer.

Biography
Kurt Schumacher was born in Kulm, West Prussia, German Empire (now Chelmno, Poland) in 1895. After volunteering for military service in World War I, in which he lost an arm, he became a member of the workers' and soldiers' council of Berlin following the November Revolution of 1918. He edited an SPD party newspaper from 1920 to 1924, and co-founded the SPD paramilitary movement in 1924. An MP from 1930, he resolutely opposed the Nazi regime and spent most of the time during the Third Reich in concentration camps (from 1933 to 1943, and in 1944), from which his health never recovered. After World War II, he became SPD leader in West Germany, and was strongly against the forced merger of the SPD and the Communist Party of Germany in Soviet-occupied East Germany. He narrowly lost the first national elections, and resolutely opposed Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's policies of integration with the Western powers at the expense of speedy reunification. He died in 1952.